for the rest of us death will be a relief

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[saveslives]

[Jo sighs, rubbing her eyes. She doesn't know why, but she feels like he's telling the truth. As unfortunate as it is.]

Working theory is that since we broke the curse, the merge may have ... reversed itself.

[paraphrasing]

Well, great for me, but wildcard for you, am I right? I mean, I got my own body back, I can just do whatever I want. Like the Macarena.

( He doesn't, for the record. But he could. )

[saveslives]

Then I guess that's the question. What do you want? Because I'm not interested in having a repeat of my wedding, or Josie's dark phase, or anything else that's ended violent and bloody with you in the middle.

[Killing people is not going to be on the table.]

Especially since there are a lot of people who will probably want to kill you.

[Bonnie may prefer to be hands off, and Elena isn't vindictive, but Damon? Stefan? Dean?]

[paraphrasing]

Hey, why does everyone forget I deceived one witch and kidnapped one person? Sure, I took a hold of your body and did some not very nice things, but, I had months to stew in there. This is years later, with your sensibilities, logic, and parental wisdom. I do have a sense of self preservation, contrary to what your husband and that long, long list of enemies think. And, not that you have reason to believe me, but whatever's rattling up here doesn't involve the R word.

( Revenge. )

[saveslives]

[Jo crosses her arms in front of her chest, exhaling with a sigh.]

You're right. I don't have a reason to believe you. Especially when I know the R-word is your favorite thing.

[Especially when, as he points out, he's had years to linger on it.]

[paraphrasing]

I don't know. Magical cat-scan? Rei-ki? Head-dive from one of the vampires that doesn't want to kill me? Preferably. Though, if I did have a choice, I did always have a soft spot for Stefon.

( He looks to Alaric. )

It's the eyebrows.

[saveslives]

[Jo takes a deep breath because Stefan isn't necessarily ... available. She does know - which means Kai also knows - he is stateside. She doesn't know whether or not he's close, though.

But she's not going to ask that of Shep for the same reasons she wouldn't ask it of Bonnie. She's not going to ask it of Damon because that's certainly a recipe for murder. And she certainly wouldn't ask it of Lizzie, even if she were stateside. Caroline is in California.

She sighs, before looking over at her husband.]

Could you see where Stefan is and if he'd be willing?

[paraphrasing]

( Alaric, crossed arms, doesn't like any of this, but he botched the take-off, left her asleep and now she's deciding for their family. But, Kai was hers, Kai was absorbed into her, she gets to call it.

"I can give him a call," Alaric says, retreating - to the corner, because he doesn't want to leave his wife alone with Kai. Again.

So, he sighs, finds Stefan's contact and presses send, bringing the phone to his ear.

Kai flops on the bed, propping his head up with his hands. )

[somanyadjectives]

[His phone rings and he grumbles before fumbling his phone and bringing it to his ear.]

Hello?

[He did not check the caller ID, that's probably his mistake. But he was having a good nap.]

[daydrinker]

Stefan, it's Alaric. Jo needs a favor. How close are you to Williamsburg, Virginia? We... have a Kai situation.

( He'll let that land first as Kai gestures to himself. He's a situation, now? No, wait. He's the problem. It's him. Right?

He grabs the remote and turns on the TV. Alaric moves further away from it, out to the balcony door, unlocking it and flapping through the curtains he should have drawn. )

[somanyadjectives]

[Stefan sits straight up, staring into the middle distance of the hotel wall because of course this is happening right now.]

I'm in Baltimore. What happened?

[Is this a you need him to come in and kill Kai kind of situation, because he can do that.]

[daydrinker]

Jo and the other witches ended the curse. They burned the last of the bodies. But, we think the end of the curse unmerged Jo and Kai. He's here in the hotel room.

( He has to say )

He hasn't tried anything and claims the urge isn't there to. But, it's Kai. He's the one that suggested a vampire head dive to see what's going on. You're not far. ( Wait. ) What are you doing in Baltimore?

[somanyadjectives]

Long story.

[Stefan really doesn't want to spend his day dealing with Kai Parker. But it seems as though he doesn't really have a choice, so he'll just suck it up. He pulls away to check the maps app on his phone before coming back.]

Send me the address. I can be there in about three hours.

[Possibly sooner because he forgot he still has a routewitch charm in his car.]

[daydrinker]

I'll send it right now. ( He looks back at the drapes concealing him on the balcony. ) Stefan. Thanks.

( He hangs up, deciding to text his wife,

Come out onto the balcony.

Her phone lights up wherever it is. )

[saveslives]

[Jo glances down at her phone, reading the message before getting to her feet and heading out to the balcony. And once she closes the door, she throws up an anti-eavesdropping spell so that Kai can't listen in.]

What did Stefan say?

[daydrinker]

He'll be here in three hours.

( He looks behind his wife. )

What's he doing now? Just watching TV?

[saveslives]

Basically. He doesn't seem particularly bothered, but Kai has always been hard to read.

[She sighs.]

I don't know what we're going to do with him.

[daydrinker]

All my instincts say 'lock him up and throw away the key.' ( Other instincts say prison world. But they've been there and done that. ) Why do you think he's not trying to get away? He's free. Why wouldn't he want to use that freedom. For whatever.

[saveslives]

I don't know. Maybe he's ... changed?

[She knows he's been present for the past twenty years, even if he hasn't been visible?]

Or maybe he's learned from his past mistakes.

[daydrinker]

( Mistakes aren't a harsh enough term, but he lets her have it. )

Maybe we'll find out soon enough.

[saveslives]

[She nods, before exhaling slowly. Then she wrinkles her nose.]

I was thinking about how this curse made things so complicated between us, when we were trying to break it.

[And magic will what magic will.]

[daydrinker]

Between you and Kai?

( Or, Jo and Alaric? )

I never asked what was involved in breaking the curse.

[saveslives]

They had a stall tactic in place. These rooms where we were distracted by a ghost from our past. I had Kai. There were these keys we had to find, and he and I were talking about what got us here.

When we found our key, I let him open the door.

[So is she responsible for this?]

Then there was the actual curse which involved channeling a lot of magic from a pillar in the middle of a room of ghosts that had the Parker witch that triggered the curse in it.

[daydrinker]

It still sounds like breaking the curse might have unmerged you, but you didn't do this. That curse was never supposed to be there in the first place.

( He grimaces. )

Kai was never supposed to be a part of you.

[saveslives]

I know. But that doesn't change the fact that he kind of is now.

[They've been one person for almost twenty years. It's hard not to feel like the fact that he's re-emerged means that there's a part of her living outside her skin.]